Strategy

Which open-source vendors can afford the cloud?

Cost and quality are two driving factors for open source's role as the bedrock for public cloud computing. Google, Amazon, and other public cloud providers simply can't compete with expensive, proprietary license-burdened infrastructure. They need open source.

As cloud computing matures and moves from public to private clouds, however, we may see enterprises flock to free (as in cost) and open (as in freedom) infrastructure, too.

What would this mean for subscription-based open-source vendors?

It might not be pretty. Tim O'Reilly pointed out nearly two years ago that

almost all of the software stacks running on cloud … Read more

Could open source abandon the Google train?

As arguably the world's largest open-source company, Google has a big stake in maintaining its place at the heart of the open-source ecosystem. Recent events, however, suggest that Google can't rest on its laurels if it wants to secure the hearts and minds of open-source developers.

Make no mistake: Google needs those developers. Android, Chrome (and Chrome OS), and other Google initiatives depend upon fostering vibrant open-source communities that can help it to surpass Microsoft and Apple.

Such communities may be ready to cut the Google umbilical cord, however, which should be worrying to Google.

There have been … Read more

Hello Oracle stack; bye-bye best of breed?

For years the IT industry has been extolling the virtues of "best of breed." Build your IT environment using the best servers, networking gear, apps, storage--all from the best vendors within their own particular space. Now it appears to be doing an about-face with the multiple introductions of pre-integrated computing "stacks." Soon, all of the major IT vendors will either be partner to or the outright owners of an end-to-end, application-to-bits-on-spinning-disk, stack. And now comes Larry Ellison with the Oracle apps-to-storage stack. Bye-bye best of breed?

Remember when Sun's former CEO Scott McNealy told us … Read more

What we'll pay for on the Web

Information doesn't want to be free. It wants to be managed.

We live in the midst of a digital cornucopia that our brains simply cannot manage without help. Whether it's our 150 Facebook-friend limit or our ability to find and store iTunes songs, we need help processing the sheer abundance of digital goods.

Importantly, we're generally willing to pay for this help.

Sure, most of us will take something for free if we can. Just ask the music industry, which has been battered by peer-to-peer piracy.

But not all of us. And not all of the time. … Read more

Storage predictions for 2011

My worthy competitors within the ranks of the storage analyst community have been out there for the last few weeks making predictions for 2010. Since I like to differentiate myself (and let's face it, I'm a bit late to the 2010 prognostication party) I've decided instead to get a jump on next year. Here are a couple of predictions for 2011:

Dedupe everywhere Data deduplication (dedupe)--squeezing data objects down to a fraction of their original size--surfaced in 2003. Four years later, dedupe went mainstream as a process embedded within backup. Last year we saw emerging implementations … Read more

The rising importance of cross-platform apps

Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a day when we would "transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." In the technology world, perhaps that notion might be applicable to the dream of a day when we'd get beyond incompatible operating systems to have a truly interoperable software application industry.

Slowly, but surely, we're getting there...on both counts.

It's getting harder to live on Windows Island. And, as cool as you might think you are to have an "exclusive" berth on the Mac's Love Boat, it'… Read more

If Google can do it...why can't you?

If there was ever a doubt as to whether open-source software could be big business, Google has eradicated it. The Silicon Valley giant shovels open-source software out the door like Santa Claus, all the while monetizing it with cloud-based services.

Google' strategy is no longer in question. What does remain a question is why more companies aren't following its lead.

Gartner analyst Brian Prentice argues:

By 2020 open source will be so conceptually and practically integrated into the way business is done that the concept of blogging on open source in 2030 will be about as interesting as predicting … Read more

Come on, Google, subsidize me

$529. That's the price of Google's new Nexus One and admittedly a small price to pay for the eternal bliss promised by its backers.

For $179, you can get the same device through T-Mobile, because the wireless carrier expects to charge you $79.99 per month for at least two years. (For those who think AT&T's wireless service couldn't get worse, you're wrong. Try T-Mobile.)

If T-Mobile is willing to subsidize the cost of the Nexus One in return for a services contract, why isn't Google subsidizing the device, given that it'… Read more

Should enterprise IT piggyback on consumer Web?

For all the billions enterprises spend on IT each year, they arguably get far inferior software than Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other consumer Web companies make available for free. In part, the consumer Web can deliver exceptional value for so little because it piggybacks on the expensive infrastructure built by others.

Is it time for enterprise software to "pull a Google" and build solutions on the consumer Web?

It may sound preposterous, but consider just how good the software you use at work is compared to the software you use at home. It's not even close. The … Read more

An application war is brewing in the cloud

Today's cloud-computing vendors focus on infrastructure, but that won't be the case for long. It can't be. As competing vendors seek to differentiate themselves, they're going to move "up the stack" into applications.

It's like the history of enterprise computing, played out in months and years instead of decades.

Oracle arguably set this strategy in motion when it acquired its way to a complete infrastructure-plus-applications portfolio to lower customer acquisition costs and improve its competitive differentiation for CIOs. IBM and Microsoft also went that route, though to differing degrees and in different ways.… Read more